Media, Health Risk, and Public Perception

How do media depict health risk issues? How do media’s depictions of health risk issues influence our perceptions? Media and health risk researchers have been eager to find answers to these questions. This book tries to answer these questions by examining the case of West Nile Virus outbreak in 1999 at New York, U.S.A. By analyzing media’s depictions of West Nile Virus issue, and by comparing word association patterns in the media with those in people’s perceptions, the author provides an insight into the relationship between media and our perception concerning health risk issues. The analysis of West Nile Virus case in this book should provide a new insight useful for communication professionals and researchers.